Thread: Sometimes I think Lawncare is a Hobby

That aint nothing new,,,, the truck had 2 brand new uniroyal HD tire on the front so I made sure to put 4 matching tires on the rear. plus I know the owner of the tire store so im sure I got a discount LOL.

Ive been ripped so many times Ive gotton where it doesnt bother me much anymore......

I had one of those days yesterday. The Day From Hell as it shall henceforth be known in the annals of time.

Yesterday started out just like any other day this year. The grass is soaked from a heavy fog. I knew I couldn't really cut anything yet so I headed a couple of doors down from me and trimmed and edged 2 lawns. I was going to come back to them later and cut when the grass dried out a bit.

Well, my boots decided it would be a great time to develop a big leak. By the time I was done both feet were soaked and my pants were soaked too. So I walk back home and changed all of my clothes out.

Jump into the truck and head to the first job. I got that one done at around 10:30. Little did I know that it would be the last job that would get completed until 2:30 that afternoon. I head to the second job. He's a good customer and always pays via Paypal on the day of service. Well, he has 2 dogs, a yellow Lab and an Aussie. They don't like me and they never will. So all I could cut was the front yard. I got done and waited around for a few minutes. He always comes home in the late morning and I figured I'd wait untill he gets there. 20 minutes went by and no customer. Damn. I jump in the truck and head to the two jobs I trimmed earlier. My plan was to call him from home and remind him.

So I start cutting the crabgrass infested lawns and of course, the mower is spitting chunks of crabgrass out. That wasn't unexpected. I head around behind the fence behind the first house. Now mind you, I've been cutting this grass for 5 years without a problem. I head behind the fence and there's a small drainage ditch. I got stuck. Argh.

So since I'm right across the street from my house I'll go get my come-along and attach it to the corner chain link fence post and yank her out. I searched both my garage and my shed. No come-along. While I was home I called and left a message on that other customer's phone about the dogs and said that I'd like to get the job done today. Then I walked back to my truck, unhooked the trailer and head out to Harbor Freight to get a cheap-come along. Mind you now, I did call the local auto parts store to see how much an American made come-along costs. The dude said he had one from GM Goodwrench and it was $299.95. HF had a 2 ton unit for $19.95. Guess which one I bought.

So with my new Chinese come-along in hand I yanked the Dixie out of the ditch. I finished up those 2 jobs by about 3:15. I head home and my customer has called back and left me a message.

He had to rush out of town the night before and forget to tell his brother to put the dogs in the house and leave the electrified gate open. He said that the dogs are put up now and the gate is open. It's 3:15 by now but being a person that never gives up. I jumped back into the truck and headed over there and cut his back yard in 45 minutes.

That's it. I know for a lot of you this is just a typical day but I don't like it when things get this disorganized. We have had massive amounts of rain this year and it's just making every job and day difficult.

I did have one bright spot yesterday though. A customer that let me go last year came and asked me for a favor. She was one of my 12 month pay customers. She thought that she would get me to lower her price. She told me I had to go lower or she would find someone to do her work for less.

Her yard was a complete maintenance package. Apps, spraying the weeds, cutting the grass and trimming her many bushes and hedges. Well she let me go and hired another guy. Her yard looks worse and worse as each week goes by. I won't go into details but lets just say the guy is lost once he gets on or off of a mower.

Yesterday she had a guy coming to power wash her white plastic fence. She has these 4 rose bushes that her new guy apparently won't touch. She asked me to trim them down for her so the power wash guy would get behind them. I asked her what happened to her guy. Isn't that his job? I said it looked like some had been trying to trim the bushes so I knew he did that kind of work. She said she had a call in to him to trim the rose bushes but the power wash guy would be at her house a 3:00 to clean the fence. I looked at my watch and said he was late because it was already 3:15. I told her I didn't have time to trim her roses and said I was sorry about that.

190$ fuel cost
510$ sthil kombi and misc. parts
60$ insurance due by the first

I did get the old kombi up and running and even adjusted the valves, I sold all my TroyBuilt attachment plus stuff that I used for my backups and was planning to get another kombi anyway. It just messed up my day because I was already behing from the previous days rain.

Neighbor calls back yesterday afternoon and has to have his water line in right away, I tell him I can dot Saturday, he says no, hes still looking for someone else. I dont know why people bother you that have no intention of using you. I realize hes a neighbor, but frankley hes out of freebies with me since he replaced me with someone else to cut his grass.

At least you're working. I've been sitting here in Ohio waiting for the weather to give me a little rain. Hurricane Ivan shows up on the radar. I get out the aerator, weld a crack in it and wait. 60% chance of rain on Saturday...no rain. 50% chance today, only fog.